Oops I've done it again

Steve T

Well-Known Member
Took a spin out this morning to view a possible purchase o_O. . . . .

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This little fella will be joining the pack in a few weeks :)

Steve T

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Steve T

Well-Known Member
Gundog

Is there any other dog worth having/training Austin?

The eldest dog is 13, deaf and his rear end is getting progressivly worse - not unlike myself really :confused: ;). Nothing wrong with his nose or eye sight though - found and flushed a couple of sitting birds yeaterday as we were taking in the boundaries of the shoot

The "youngest" dog is 9 and he is lame, so his beating days are over, though he's OK for the occasional day out with me and a gun, though he is kinda pooped the next day.

This youngster is the first pup for me in a long time - 23 years since I last trained a dog from scratch. Looking forward to the challenge.

Steve T

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Lowflyer

Well-Known Member
Fixed the computer and now the photo is sorted :D

That's more like it Steve.
He's a cute little feker isn't he ?

Same markings on the face as my old dog Daniel, yeah I know, Daniel the Spaniel :D
Except mine had more markings on his back.
He was liver and white also, great dog, lasted 13 yrs I think.
I'll try and dig up a doggy pic of him.
 

Steve T

Well-Known Member
4 months old and over twice the size he was when we got him . . . . .
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Saw 2 of his sisters on the weekend and suddenly thought I was under feeding him - but the girls are shorter legged dogs and they only get out of the kennel for a good walk once a day (such is the life of a keepers dog). Turns out "H" is the same weight as his two sisters, just longer in body and leg.
Sits to voice, hand and whislte signal, returns to the recall whistle and walks to heel off the lead. Just gotta get him to bring the decoy back too me and not play with it all day :rolleyes: - he's a puppy, they all do that :D

Steve T

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Steve T

Well-Known Member
Well this week the wee fella officially, in my mind at least, became a Gun dog.

Eldest joined me on the local shoot ground and over a distance of 150m, he fired off half a dozen shots as me & "H" worked our way across the carrot park towards him. "H" never bothered himself at all when the gun was fired, though I was getting him to sit when a shot was fired.

5 months old, steady to shot, stopping and returning on the whistle, retrieving to hand both training dummy & cold game and finally working his own little "pattern" when allowed to hunt.

He & he are going to get along fine
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Steve T

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Steve T

Well-Known Member
And now he's into stealing seats . . . . . "You is in my seat Lady!"
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And an update on his progress - Took him to his first shoot this morning, just to experience the goings on. "Not bovvered" was his general demeanour, till someone brought down a bird:eek:. The other two dogs were along for some confidence boosting and I think it was the big spaniels reaction to the downing of a bird that got the little ones interest.
He got ever more excited when the big dog retrieved the bird. Short outing, but he was pooped when we got home after no more than an hour outdoors.

Steve T

:cool:
 

austin

Well-Known Member
I was talking to a keeper/dog trainer at one of the shoots I go to. He was saying that if a spaniel shows good inclination to retrieve don’t train it to retrieve. He said make sure it hunts, quarters, comes back, turns, sits, heels and does all the basics. Then IF you want it to retrieve teach it that when it’s older. He reckoned about 3 years old for retriever training. His view was that spaniels are best for flushing birds and they can get too keen on getting hold of a bird and pegging it. Makes sense as my spaniel was bugger for pegging birds. She was often “top gun” on a shoot day.
 

Steve T

Well-Known Member
Austin,

I've always concentrated any dogs training on it's weakest aspect, be it working a pattern or retrieving. Yes, any dog given too much encouragement to retrieve will find it all too easy to "bring home" any bird it finds. The big dog goes on point when he finds a bird, and only goes in when requested. I'm hoping to be able to instill this trait in the pup - makes for a full bag when your on a walk-about days shooting ;)

Right now I'm interested in the pup being able to mark a thrown dummy and make a bee line for it and not just rely on his nose to lead him to the dummy.
He already stops & returns on command, be it voice , whistle or hand signal. He quarters naturally and is starting to respond to direction change commands. Yesterdays outing was purely to introduce him to another environment - the shoot environment. I've had him wandering round the town with me, to get him used to lots of people being around and not being interested in him, as well as the increased road traffic.
I think my biggest job with this little fella will be water work - he walks round puddles for gawds sake :rolleyes:. He's been down to the river with the other dogs and he just stared in dis-belief as they jumped around and swam. Still having fun bringing him on, and the water work can wait till the warmer months.

This was him this morning, playing "three-in-a-bed"
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Steve T

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austin

Well-Known Member
Well don Steve - great dog and a great trainer by the sounds of things. My dog didn't take to water immediately, but once she discovered ducks that didn't want to fly and needed chasing around the pit she loved it and would then go in any old muddy splash, the muddier the better preferably. Good luck with the rest of the training.
 
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